The 21st Annual Professional Conference of the European Partners against Corruption and European contact-point network against corruption (EPAC/EACN)
The High Authority took part in the 21st Annual Professional Conference and General Assembly of the European Partners against Corruption and European contact-point network against corruption (EPAC/EACN) in Moldova on November 23-24th. This is the largest gathering of anti-corruption authorities and police oversight bodies in Europe. It was an opportunity to present the missions of the High Autority during a workshop dedicated to new tools for assessing and preventing corruption.
The conference was organized by the National Anti-corruption Centre of Moldova. About 180 participants from 24 different countries, as well as EU agencies and international organizations, attended the event. The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, opened the conference and underlined the need for experience-sharing to fight corruption in Moldova, in the context of the war in Ukraine and her country’s accession to the European Union. Then, Veronica Dragalin, Chief Prosecutor of the Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s office of Moldova, stressed the need to show citizens results in the fight against corruption, so as not to weaken their trust in public institutions.
High-level speakers shared their experience of investigating grand corruption, the exchange of information between authorities and new tools to assess and prevent corruption risks. Speakers included the Chair of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Working Group on Bribery, Drago Kos, Managing Director of the Basel Institute on Governance Greta Fenner, Executive Secretary of the GRECO, Council of Europe Hanne Juncher, Daniel Murphy, Head of the International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre (IACCC).
The EPAC-EACN award for the most innovative anti-corruption initiative went to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, for establishing a training program on anti-corruption.
Concluding the event, the Chisinau Declaration was adopted and six new EPAC/EACN Members joined the network. Then, the President of the EPAC-EACN and Director of the Special Investigation Services of the Republic of Lithuania, Žydrūnas Bartkus, invited the network to expand even further to integrity authorities, especially those active on questions of prevention of conflicts of interest, control of revolving door and regulation of lobbying.